1865.] SENATE— No. 96. 5 



Mr. Theodore Lyman was unanimously elected a trustee, to 

 fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. Ward. 



Since the last Annual Report, the balance of the appropria- 

 tion by the Commonwealth, from the sales of the Back Bay 

 lands, amounting to twelve thousand two hundred and seven 

 ■^q dollars, has been received by the Trustees. 



The report of the Committee on the Museum, made to the 

 Trustees in October last, presents so fully the condition of the 

 Museum, that I present it entire in this Report : 



The Committee on the Museum, ask leave to report, — 



That they have lately visited the Museum, without notice to Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz ; and when he was not present examined every part of it, 

 once with care, and portions of it more than once. They are pleased 

 to be able to state, as the general result of their investigation, that they 

 found the institution showing everywhere, marks of great prosperity, 

 and of remarkable administrative talent. 



Two things especially struck them. The first was the large accu- 

 mulation, within the last year, of important and valuable specimens. 

 Their number is obviously immense. From the cellar to the attic, in 

 casks, in jars, and in boxes, all arranged and labelled, they are crowded 

 together, waiting for room in which to be displayed for the purposes of 

 instruction. Even the roof does not escape service. The skeleton 

 of the remarkable whale, sent from Cape Cod, is deposited there, 

 exposed to the weather, because no other place so suitable remained 

 in which to stretch it out. A building, quite as large as the present, 

 would be necessary either to exhibit all that ought to be exhibited, 

 or even to develop the whole system, on which the great purposes 

 of the Museum are founded, and must rest. 



The other circumstance that much struck the Committee was the 

 diligence and orderly service of the Museum. Some of the persons 

 employed in it are of great experience and skill ; all are competent to 

 the separate duties assigned them, and seem to fulfil their respective 

 tasks, not merely with fidelity, but with interested zeal. The result is, 

 that, notwithstanding the vast number of specimens received during the 

 last year, all of them, except such as have come too recently to be yet 

 dealt with, are in such exact order, that any one of them can be imme- 

 diately found. A very considerable number of these specimens, it 

 should be observed, have been obtained by the Museum, through an 

 inexpensive system of exchanges from the great similar institutions 

 abroad, where they had been collected from all parts of the world ; and 

 being identified and labelled by scientific men of known authority, such 



